Page 18 of Hooked By a Hero
“But they will know,” Miss Winters said, shaking her head. She was thrown against the doorway as the ship pitched again, but recovered enough to say, “They will drag us all onto the deck and find us out.”
Caspian shook his head. “You leave that to me,” he said.
Miss Winters stared at him for several seconds until another jolt of the ship seemed to decide her. “I can wear my brother’s clothes,” she said. “I can hide for as long as I must.”
It was a good enough answer for Caspian. Elias seemed to think so, too. They left Miss Winters to change and raced the rest of the way along the deck to the hatch leading above near the forecastle.
“She’s right, you know,” Elias said as he worked the latch to open it to the swirling storm. “They will do an inventory of passengers if they capture the ship. Men like Dick and the others might not have seen the passengers before now, but Tumbrill has interacted with them all. The ladies will be discovered one way or another.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Caspian said.
Elias glanced back over his shoulder at him doubtfully. There wasn’t time to explain the particulars. The man would have to trust him.
“We have to tell the others,” he shouted above the suddenly loud rush of the storm as they clawed their way to the main deck. “Ruby and Lady Adelaide and her maid.”
Elias nodded, but the sheer intensity of everything happening on the main deck was too much for him to call back or discuss the matter.
The main deck was pure chaos. Between the storm and the mutiny, there was danger in every direction. The ship rolled and tipped with the crashing sea, flinging everything that was not lashed down across the slippery deck. That included the men who were locked in battle with swords and clubs and fists. One grappling pair was so close as Caspian and Elias emerged from the middeck that Caspian had to grab Elias and tug him out of the way to avoid being hit with a club.
“It’s madness!” Elias shouted, though he was barely audible over the wind and the clattering of ropes and sails above them.
Caspian searched for the safest way to make it to the cabins in the center of the main deck, where the more distinguished passengers likely huddled in fear of what was around them, but every which way there was some sort of impediment. He spotted Tumbrill crossing swords with one of the officers to one side and a few of the convicts throwing punches at the sailors. One of them, a hulking man who still had thick muscles despite his confinement belowdeck, grabbed the sailor he was fighting with and tossed him over the side of the ship.
Caspian’s chest ached to jump into the water to save the man, but his chances of climbing aboard the ship again if he did were negligible. He had to concentrate on the people he could save.
“Hurry,” he shouted to Elias, then pushed away from the forecastle wall, where they’d been sheltering. “We have to find Ruby and the others and tell them to change.”
Elias nodded and pushed after him. It was nearly impossible to struggle and stumble across the ever-swaying deck while also dodging swords. The men who were battling sliced wildly through the air, barely able to keep themselves upright as they fought. Several of the convicts appeared to be looking for ways to save themselves rather than fight, as if they wanted no part of the mutiny attempt, and some of the sailors appeared to be fighting alongside the likes of Dick. Caspian ducked at the very last second at one point, narrowly avoiding having his arm sliced off by one of those traitors.
They made it to the first set of cabins at last, and as Elias wrenched open the door to the narrow corridor, the wind nearly blew it off its hinges. A grey-faced Mr. Ferrars was standing in the corridor, bracing himself against the walls on either side, while Ruby clutched at him from behind.
“What are you doing, man?” Mr. Ferrars demanded weakly of Elias. “Can you not see that the world is coming to an end?”
“The convicts have escaped,” Elias told him and Ruby without hesitation. “They’re attempting a mutiny. Ruby, you have to disguise yourself as a boy so that if they do win, you might be spared.”
“Good God!” Mr. Ferrars gasped, though whether at the threat of mutiny or the suggestion his granddaughter dress as a boy, Caspian did not know.
“I’ll do it!” Ruby said at once. “Grandpapa, you must return to the cabin where you will be safe!”
Mr. Ferrars did not look as though he would obey the command. Caspian was forced to crawl around him, Elias following, as they moved on to the other cabins in that set. Emily, Lady Adelaide’s maid, answered Caspian’s knock on her cabin door, and although she was horrified at everything happening and the request for her to dress as a man, she hurried to obey.
As Caspian and Elias made it out the other door of that section of cabins and crossed to the second set, things became much worse. From the center of the ship, they were able to see nearly everything happening on deck, including the fact that convicts, crewmen, and passengers alike were struggling to move around the main deck. Caspian saw more than one fly overboard, both as they lost whatever fight they were engaged in and simply because the wind and waves caught them unprepared.
“They’ll all be swept away if they’re not careful,” Elias shouted behind him.
Another pang of regret that Caspian couldn’t save everyone who deserved to be saved washed through him. But once again, there wasn’t time to dwell in those regrets.
“You wish me to do what?” Lady Adelaide balked once they’d made it to the other set of cabins and explained the situation.
“You do not want to know what horrors will befall you if you do not disguise yourself,” Elias told her as they all braced against the walls.
Lady Adelaide continued to look incredulous, but Mr. Cartwright took her arm and said, “I will help you, my lady.”
Once they were satisfied that all of the ladies had been alerted to what was happening, Caspian and Elias pushed on, exiting the second set of cabins near the ship’s stern. Caspian could practically feel Elias’s anxiety and confusion about what they should do next as they stepped back out into the wind and rain. The ship continued to fling itself against the waves, completely at the mercy of the storm.
“I do not believe anyone is steering the ship,” Caspian called out above the roar of a wave crashing over the port side.
“It is impossible to tell,” Elias agreed.
